The importance of articles in today's internet marketing efforts is immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success of driving traffic to one's site. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site to help generate more traffic.

Articles are also commonly a factor in giving site high rankings in search engine result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie it gets.

Before you start blindly permeating your site with articles you need to know that there are certain requirements for article-marketing success. These requirements must be met to derive maximum mileage from an article. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you - four must-haves in articles to make it successful and driving endless traffic to your site.

1. Keywords and Keyword Phrases

An article must always be centered on keywords and keyword phrases. People usually go online to look for information or for a specific purpose. They would usually go to search engine like Google and type in some keywords related to what they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer, etc).

The important thing here is to have these keywords in the articles so people can find you. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you should have articles about cars and their parts with related keywords embedded within like "car parts", "repairs", etc. There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster determine what keywords and keyword phrases are most sought after. Try them out so you know what keywords to embed in your articles.

2. Keyword Density

After identifying your keywords and keyword phrases, you need to know how to make use of them to your advantage. An article must have a good keyword density for a search engine to "detect" its presence. As a general rule, it should contain at least ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used in the article. An effective article is one with keyword density that is neither too high nor too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It becomes an overkill. A low number may be ignored totally by the search engines. To achieve a good balance, I would normally advise looking at weaving in some keywords or keyword phrases in title, introduction, second paragraph and the last paragraph. This would amount to a good five to ten percent and ensuring your article content still make sense on the whole.

I would strongly advise against taking keyword optimization to the extreme. Remember search engine rankings are dynamic and it changes with new content coming online every day. You will be better off focusing on crafting good quality content for your readers rather than writing for keyword optimization.

3. Good Article Content

As mentioned you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must be regarded as good reading before they can work for you. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information. They should be well structured with good grammar and no spelling errors. If you want to earn people's trust, start projecting the professional image right from the outset.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to provide great information and as many facts as you can. A well-researched article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field. As more people believe and trust in you, your products will soon fly off the shelves.

4. Linking Articles

Before you start submitting articles to directories, ezines, newsletters and other such sites, never forget to include a link to your site. A resource box at the end of your article with a brief description of your site and what it offers will do wonders for your traffic. If people like what they read in your articles, they will most likely click on the link on expectation of more quality information on you site - free traffic for you!

Conclusion

You are starting out on article-writing, take heed on these 4 must-haves if you like to double your results in half the time. Article writing is indeed one of the most powerful and free traffic generation techniques brought about by the power of internet. Follow these guidelines and I can almost guarantee at least 10 to 20 free visits per day on your website after you submitted some 50 articles online.

I wish you success in your internet marketing venture.